Circular saws are used in a variety of industries for cutting objects to length. Such saws are employed in the woodworking industry, in sawmills and the like. Such saws are also widely employed in cutting metal shapes to length, notably metal billets, extrusions and the like.
These cutting operations produce noise levels which may be damaging to worker health. For example, when sawing aluminum extrusions, sound pressure levels of up to one hundred twenty decibels, A-weighted (reference twenty micropascals), may be reached, depending upon the alloy, size and shape of the extrusion being sawed. This sound pressure level approaches the threshold of pain.
Increased concern over worker health and safety recently has evidenced the need for significant reductions in such high noise levels in sawing operations. Every reduction of noise of three decibels is equal to a halving of the noise level.
One solution which has been proposed is to replace existing overtable circular saws with undertable circular saws including internal noise control treatment and vibration damping elements. One such saw is produced by Texas Extrusion Company. Such a solution is not satisfactory, as it requires replacement of existing saws, which requires a heavy capital investment. Further, these saws have not proven themselves capable of withstanding production level operations over an extended period of time.
A more cost effective and realistic approach would make use of existing sawing equipment. Thus, an acoustical enclosure for existing saws, capable of significantly reducing noise levels, is a major objective of the present invention.